Made-in-SA BMWs among the best
Les Tilley
13 June 2002
A South African factory has scooped a stunning award, with BMW’s Rosslyn plant near Pretoria winning for its Munich parent the vote of best BMW manufacturing plant in Europe and second-best vehicle manufacturing plant in the world in a major US ratings survey.
The Rosslyn plant was awarded the highly prestigious European Gold Plant Quality Award by the leading US ratings agency, JD Powers, on 31 May. Although the plant is in South Africa, it falls under the European parent BMW AG in Munich.
"This is a truly extraordinary achievement,” said BMW Managing Director Ian Robertson. “Not only has BMW South Africa been recognised as building the best quality cars "in Europe" but also, our record has comprehensively beaten major car manufacturing plants throughout the world. Clearly, BMW’s drive to achieve world-class quality here in South Africa is proving to be successful.”
Since BMW’s 1998 investment in the upgrade of the Rosslyn plant, quality,
on-time delivery and productivity has substantially improved, resulting in an announcement in December 2001 of further investment of R2-billion by BMW AG.
According to BMW’s communications executive Richard Carter, this was due to its investment in training and education. “Other countries said that SA couldn’t build cars up to BMW Germany’s quality and we knew we had a profound challenge to meet. We spent vast amounts on training compared to elsewhere. In South Africa we spend 10% of our annual wage bill on training compared to 2% in Germany and 2-3% in the USA.”
The 2002 Initial Quality Study by JD Powers is based on responses from nearly 65,000 purchasers and lessees of new 2002 model-year cars and trucks surveyed after 90 days of ownership. The study, now in its 16th year, is considered the industry benchmark for new-vehicle quality. Average industry initial quality stands at 133 problems per 100 vehicles, a 14-per-100 improvement over 2001. The Rosslyn plant
scored an impressive 85 on this scale.
BMW’s plant in Munich received the Silver award in the Europe section with a rating of 87, and DaimlerChrysler’s Sindelfingen plant (also in Germany) came third with 94 and was awarded the Bronze award. In the Asia Pacific Region, Toyota fared best with scores of between 91 and 93, while in the North and South America Region, GM won with scores of between 93 and 100. Toyota in Japan had the best scores overall, according to Carter.
Speaking from Rosslyn, BMW South Africa’s Technical Director, Harald Vogt paid tribute to the staff and associates working at the plant. "The tremendous effort of all our people to produce cars of world-class quality is paying off," said Vogt.
JD Power and Associates in California is a global marketing information services firm operating in key business sectors including market research, forecasting, consulting, training and customer satisfaction. Its ratings are based on responses from
millions of consumers annually.
In December last year, BMW South Africa announced that a decision had been reached by BMW AG in Munich to build future BMW models at the Rosslyn manufacturing plant, near Pretoria. Investment into the South African facility in preparation for future production will amount to an initial R2-billion.
Major additions and modifications are to be made to the plant, including substantial extensions to the body manufacturing and assembly complex. In addition, a massive new preparation plant is to be added to the existing, state-of-the-art, water-based paint facility.
It is anticipated that the upgraded plant will be capable of producing over 60 000 units a year, which will result in a substantial increase in BMW’s export capacity to R50-billion a year over the lifecycle of future models.
This investment announcement came on the back of an injection into the Rosslyn plant of R800-million in 1998 and over R500-million over the last
three years. During this time, BMW South Africa has grown its overall production volume by 220%, while its production of cars for export markets has quadrupled.
Seventy-five percent of the 49 000 vehicles produced at the Rosslyn Plant during 2001 were destined for BMW customers in the US, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Australia. Almost 80% of this year's production of 55 000 units will be exported.
Staff employed at Rosslyn has grown by almost 900 between 1998 and 2001, which BMW says has led to the creation of over 18 000 downstream jobs within BMW’s South African supplier network. BMW says that the growing export programme had resulted in BMW South Africa putting over R3.5-billion annually into the pockets of South African business.
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